Social media has a role to play for the general benefit of manufacturing communities such as spring manufacturers. One of the most active online forums in the industry is the ‘Spring Technology Forum’ on LinkedIn.

It is a vehicle in which the world community of spring manufacturers may air technology ideas for the short or long term future of our industry. That is to say ideas or wish lists for which the opinions of others are seeking to gain a consensus as to whether the idea has potential.

The wishes may be too big for any individual company to run with, but it may be that they could be pursued collectively or on an international basis. The forum could also be used to air ideas for research into areas of spring technology where more knowledge would be beneficial to all.

Several of JB Springs’ directors are members of this group, and we encourage anyone who works in the industry or indeed is passionate about spring technology to join in the discussions that are ongoing.

Of course, as with any forum, some subjects raised will have been studied previously and members of the group will be directed to results that are already in the public domain. Other members will pose questions that are best answered by attending spring technology training courses, and I am sure they will be directed to those on offer.

One member asked a question about spring design on the move, which prompted another member to say this was a subject that was already being developed, and so used the forum to invite members to become beta testers for this new technology.

At the time of writing this article, there are 245 members of this forum. It is also interesting to note that there are 3 other similar forums on LinkedIn with members from nearly all countries in which springs are manufactured. This article is intended to help spread the word and to encourage technical discussions that could be beneficial to springmakers everywhere.

The Spring Technology Forum can be found on LinkedIn here https://www.linkedin.com/groups/5072578/about

This article was originally written by Mark Hayes and has been repurposed and updated for JB Springs’ Springtelligence blog with Mark’s permission.

Mark is a partner in the Springtelligence project for whom he will write a textbook and educational resources. He has published more than 100 papers and articles on all aspects of spring technology, and these may be found on www.springexpert.co.uk